The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-03-10
DIR. TALMAGE.
Pillars Of Smoke" the Subject Of
His Last Sermon.
An Indication of the Suffering and Perse-
cution the Church of God Has Endured
"A Symbol of Its Beauty and
Ultimate Triumph.

BRoorLYN, N. Y, Feb CDR. Talmage
took for his text this morning portion of
the sixth verse of the third chapter of
Solomon's Song: "Who is this that
cometh ont of the wilderness like pillars
of smokeg" He spoke as follows:
The architecture of the smoke is WON
drous, whether God with His finger curls
it into cloud, or rounds it into dome, or
points it into spire, Or spreads it in
wing, or, as in the text, HOSTS it into a
pillar. Watch it winding up from the
country farmhouse in the early morning,
showing that the pastoral Industries have
begun, or see it ascending from .he Chin
neys of the city, telling OF the homes fed,
the factories turning out valuable fabrics,
the printing presses preparing book and
newspaper, and all the ten thousand wheels
in motion. On clear day this vapor
spoken of mounts with such buoyancy, and
spreads such delicate vail across the
sky; and traces such graceful lines Of
circle and semi-circle, and waves, and
losses, and sinks, and scars, and scatters,
with such affluence Of shape and color and
suggestiVeness that if you have never
noticed it you are like man who has all
his life lived IN Paris and yet never seen
the Luxembourg, and all his life in Rome
and never seen the Vatican, and all his
life at Lockport and never seen Niagara.
Forty -four times the Bible speaks of the
smoke, and it is about time some body
breaches sermon recognizing this strange
weird, beautiful, elastic, charming, terrific
and fascinating vapor Across the Bible
sky floats the smoke of Sinai, the smoke of
Sodom, the smoke of All the smoke Of the
pit, the smoke of the volcanic hills when
God touches them, and in my text the glo-
rious church of God coming out of the will
derness like pillars of smoke.
In the first place these pillars Of smoke
In my text indicate the suffering the
church of God has endured. What do /
mean by the churcha mean not a build
ing, not sect, but those who in all ages
and all lands, and of all beliefs, love God
and are trying to do right. For many
centuries the heavens have been black
with the smoke of martyrdom. If set side
by side you could girdle the earth with the
fires of persecution, Rowland Taylor
burned at Hadleigh; Latimcr burned at
Oxford; John Rogers burned at Smithfield;
John Hooper burned at Gloucester; John
Huss burned at Constance; Lawrence
Saunders burned at Coventry; Joan of Arc
burned at Rouen.
Protestants have sometimes pointed to
Catholics as prosecutors, but both Protest
ant and Catholic have practiced infamous
crueltles. The Catholics, during the reign
of Hunneric, were by Protestants put to
the worst tortures, stripped of their cloth
ing, hoisted in the air by pulleys with
weights suspended from their feet; then
letdown, and ears and eyes, nose and tongue
were amputated, and red-hot plates of iron
were put against the tenderest parts of
their bodies.
Catholicism as well as Professionalism had
Its martyrs. 1t does seem as if when any
one sect got complete dominancy in any
land the devil of persecution and cruelty
took possession of that sect Then see the
Catholics after the Huguenots. See the
Gentiles after the Jews in Touraine, where
great pit was dug and fire lighted at the
bottom of the pit, and one hundred and
sixty Jewish victims were consumed. See
the Presbyterian parliament of England,
more tyrannical in their treatment of op-
ponents than had been the criminal
lists by Pedo-B aptists; persecution
of the Established Church agains,
the Methodist Church; persecution
against the Quakers; persecution against
the Presbyterians. Under Emperor Dio
cletian IA, 900 Christians were massacred
and 700, 900 more of them died from Danish.
ment and exposure. Witness the sufferings
of the Waldenses, of the Albigenses, OF
the HISTORIANS; witness St Bartholomew
massacre; witness the Duke of Alvs
driving out of life $4,000 Christians; wit
ness Herod, and Nero, and Decius, an(
Hildebrand, and Torquemada, and Earl o.
Montfort, and Lord Claverhouse who
when told that he must give accoun
for his cruelties, said: II have no need tt
account to man, and as for God, will talk.
Him in my own hands"
A red line runs through the church his
tory of nineteen hundred years--a line Of
blood. Not by the hundreds of thousands
but by the millions must we count thos,
slain for Christ's sake. No wonder JohI
Milton put the groans Of the martyrs to an
immortal tune, writing:
"Avenge, o Lord, Thy slaughtered saints
whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold
Has persecution ceaseda Ask that man
who is trying to be a Christian, in stor,
or factory, where from morning to nigh
he is the butt of all the mean witticisms O
unbelieving employees, Ask that wife
whose husband makes her fondness for tn,
house OF God and even her kneeling praye,
~ suo oCASAuO q NOIioAOu, anu Is HO lUOr6
fit for her holy companionship than filthy
crow would be a fit companion for a robiI
or golden oriole. Compromise with ths
world and surrender to its conventionali
ties and it may let you alone, but all wht
will live Cody in Jesus Christ must suffer
persecution. Be theater-going, card
playing, wine-drinking, round-dancin,
Christian, and you may escape criticism
and social pressure; but be an up-and
down and out-and-out follower of Christ
and wording will wink to wording as h,
speaks your name, and you will be put il
many doggerel and snubbed by those no
worthy to black your oldest shoes.
When the bridge at Ashtabula broke ane
let down most of the carload of passenger.
to instant death Mr.. p p Bliss wa
seated on one side of the aisle of the ca
writing down Christian song which b,
was composing, and on the other side
group OF men were playing cards. Who's,
landing place in eternity would you prefer
that Of p p Bliss, the Gospel singer, OF
OF the card-playersl
great complaint comes from the the
aters about the ladies' high hats, becaus.
they obstruct the view of the stage, and .
lady reporter asked me the other day wha
i Thought about IT. and I fnld ho,. Tho